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Mechanobiology of Disease
Poster Abstracts
114
45-POS
Board 45
Mechanosensitivity of Human Bladder and Prostate Cancerous Cells
Malgorzata Lekka
.
The Institute of Nuclear Physics PAS, Cracow, Poland.
Altered mechanical properties of microenvironment surrounding cells influence various
processes such as cellular differentiation, migration, proliferation, and also cell-cell and/or cell-
ECM adhesion [1]. There is much evidence showing that on hydrogels substrates, mimicking
viscoelastic properties of ECM, cellular response of normal and stem cells is stiffness-depended.
In most cases, on highly rigid hydrogels, cells spread extensively, form prominent stress fibres
and mature focal adhesions [2]. Understanding the relation between ECM mechanics and cellular
response is particularly important in the context of cancer progression, which is typically
associated with alterations in rigidity due to local accumulation of a dense, crosslinked proteins
network [3]. With the development of new techniques that enable to probe elastic properties of
single cells, it is now possible to identify and detect a single, mechanically altered cell [4]. Using
this approach, it has been shown that cancerous cells are mostly more deformable (i.e. they are
softer) [5]. Simultaneously, cellular elasticity can be used to monitor changes occurring in
response to interactions with ECM components and also with neighbouring cells. In our studies,
we have focused on mechanosensitive properties of human bladder and prostate cancerous cells
originating from various stages of cancer progression. The obtained results showed distinct
cellular responses depending on the actin organization, type of ligand and the presence of
neighbouring cells. Our results relates changes in cancer cell biomechanics (elasticity) with
cellular morphology and metastatic phenotype [6].
References:
[1] Paszek et al. Cancer Cell 2005 8:241.
[2] Tee et al. Biophys. J. 100: L25–27 (2011).
[3] McGrail et al. J. Cell Sci. 127 2621-2626 (2014).
[4] Guck et al. Integr. Biol. 2010 2:575.
[5] Lekka et al. Micron 43(12) (2012): 1259-1266.
[6] The work has been financed by the NCN project no UMO-2014/15/B/ST4/04737.